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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

A forum for established and budding writers

Blogs and electronic journals have come to the aid of writers who want to write their heart out and widen their horizons. But what if you get a platform to showcase your writing, alongside renowned writers from all parts of the globe. This is exactly what the writing forum of Sacred Heart College, Thevara, Kochi has come up with. Their online journal, ‘Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts’, launched in the first week of February, has contributions by acclaimed writers like K Satchidanandan, Sudip Sen, Haneef Qureshi, and Meena Alexander, apart from the writings of students.

Jose Varghese, Chief Editor, and a faculty with the Department of English, said that the idea to start such a journal came from the blog which the college already has: ‘Heart - Bytes’ (www.heart-bytes.blogspot.in).

“The blog was started a year ago with the intention to develop the writing skills of students,” says Varghese. “There are many students who are serious about writing. We believe that the journal would give an impetus to their skills.”

According to Varghese, though they started the blog little did they know that it would soon gain international participation. However, it was the writing contest on the blog which led to the creation of the online journal. “Our blog has hosted many creative writing contests and, surprisingly, we started getting many international submissions,” he said. “Hence we thought of getting the contributions of well-known writers.”

One of the salient highlights of the journal is that the student writers are getting an good opportunity to interact with the prominent writers directly “which is a positive sign,” said Varghese.

The journal features the 12 best works by students. “So far, the works have been assessed by the faculty of the English Department,” said Varghese. “But now we are planning to send these works to prominent writers for assessing it. We are hoping to get a positive response. Some of our students are even sending their works for review.”

Student Editor Mariam Henna, whose two works, ‘Caged Dreams’ and ‘True Abode’, were published in the journal said that it helped garner reviews from authors. “The support given by writers Prathap Kammath and Alan Summers, a Haiku writer, were of immense help,” she said. The writing forum of Sacred Heart’s College, Thevara is also planning to start an online course in creative writing.